Tarja Halonen, president of Finland between 2000 and 2012 and previously the chair of Seta, a prominent Finnish LGBT rights organization, sat down with the Harvard Political Review, saying:

"I think that Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the United States have been some of the best examples [of LGBT rights]. Our governments understand that being gay is of course not a risk for the [LGBT] persons themselves, or for the community or the state. It’s a very important human rights issue—perhaps one of the most intimate issues of your personality. That’s why I think we have to work hard in order to help people in Uganda, the Middle East and Russia, because they have a new type of phobia concerning sexual minorities." Read More